


A Forgiven Conscience

by notreaaallythatmindfularentI



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gang World, Bartending Inaccuracies, Blood and Violence, Drug Use, Gen, Gun Violence, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23357326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notreaaallythatmindfularentI/pseuds/notreaaallythatmindfularentI
Summary: Brian nods. “Call me. If you need any help, call me.”Luke pursed his lips. “I never even want to see you again.”
Relationships: Jonathan | H2ODelirious & Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson & Squirrel, Luke Patterson & Terroriser, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Kudos: 10





	A Forgiven Conscience

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TehGhostWriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehGhostWriter/gifts).
  * Inspired by [I'll be Good](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/574378) by Jaymes Young. 



> Bro!Delitoonz requested by my dear friend Mellie!! So basically this is gift #2 for her, an overdue gift but here it is lol I hope you like this starting chapter, you goof :)) I'll try not to leave this hanging...
> 
> Emphasis on - t r y -

> _“My past has tasted bitter for years now so I wield an iron fist_
> 
> _Grace is just weakness, or so I've been told_
> 
> _I've been cold, I've been merciless_
> 
> _But the blood on my hands scares me to death_
> 
> _Maybe I'm waking up today”_

Luke stares at a distance as he inhales a lungful of smoke from Brian’s cigarette. They’re sitting close, leaning side-by-side in a graffitied wall facing the street. The streetlight across the distance flickers and dies. It’ll be a couple of minutes before it will light up again and Luke can’t decide if he wants to wait for it to light up just as he’s doing for the past minutes, or if he could just maybe walk away now before it lights up.

He waits for it. It doesn’t light up again even as Brian finishes up the cig and lights up another. 

Luke closes his eyes before it gets used with the extra darkness that took over when the streetlight broke. He inhales deeply, almost tasting the bitterness of the cigarette in his tongue. He almost wanted to take one from Brian, just one to calm his nerves and help him think. But he realizes he doesn’t need to think anymore, he’s made up his mind hours ago. There’s no need for a cigarette. He doesn’t have anything more to think about.

He shifted instead and pushed the smoke out of his lungs. He turns away from Brian, from the smoke that surrounds him, and stares to the blackness.

The streetlight flickers on, finally, lighting its side of the street again.

Brian speaks up from beside him, the raspiness of his voice foreign to Luke’s ears. “Been awhile since we’ve done this.”

“Yeah.” Luke answers back with a low voice, he leans his head to the wall and looks at the barely visible silhouette of Brian. He watches as Brian releases the smoke he inhaled as he speaks, the smoke evaporating towards the dim light of another streetlight not far away from them. 

“You sure, now?”

Luke takes a minute to watch the smoke completely disappear. “Yeah.”

Brian taps his cigarette to the concrete. “You told them? Tyler?” 

Luke shakes his head and sighs, looking away, back to the flickering lights. “It’s better if they don’t know. Let them think I died or something.”

Brian ponders for a bit. “Hm. Tyler will be angry if he finds out.”

Luke smiles. “He’s always angry at me. Even though I’m supposed to be the boss.”

“Why not stay?”

Luke's smile fades. “I’m tired.”

“Too much?” 

“I’ve had enough.” Luke takes a moment to look back at Brian and watch him bring back his cigarette to his mouth. “I think I need to quit from all this shit. I think I need to get away… before I get even more invested in this.”

Brian shrugs, letting the smoke out. “You think?”

Luke nods, slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

Brian nods. “Call me. If you need any help, call me.”

Luke pursed his lips. “I never even want to see you again.” 

He looks away, feeling guilty, but he wouldn’t deny the bitterness he felt towards Brian. Luke blames him in many things, especially on why his life turns out this way. Maybe if he hadn’t been a stupid kid back then, he wouldn't follow Brian along to anything. 

He hears Brian chuckle beside him. “Call me. I’ll send you my number if I ever changed.”

He sighs and leans back, nodding his head. “Thank you.” He whispers before standing up and patting Brian’s shoulder. Brian nods back at him, smiling. Luke can’t help but smile back to his friend before turning his back to Brian and walking away.

* * *

Luke blinks as he watches Joe jiggle around a cocktail shaker, trying to impress a lady that approached and ordered for a drink.

“Bartending?” He raises his eyebrow at Jonathan, the other smiling wide beside him, clearly amused at the awkward flirting Joe’s trying to initiate.

“What? Bartending is fun!” Jonathan tells him, blue eyes permanently wrinkled with smiling lines at the side.

“So you tell me.” Luke says as he sits at a barstool, watching one of the bartenders leave his station and intervene with a fight that broke at one side of the bar. He winces when one of them spits at the poor bartender before messing up their table, leaving all the beers and glass cups shattered on the floor and leaving. 

“It has its moments.” Jonathan says, grimacing, and turns to him. “Well? Interested?”

Luke smiles at him. “I don’t really have a choice. I need a job.”

Jonathan smiles brightly back at him. “Don’t worry. Let me talk to my boss first then we’ll see how this goes.” 

“Alright.” He says as he watches Jonathan disappear behind a door almost hidden in the far corner of the bar and sees him go up the stairs before the door closes behind him. Luke leans forward at the bar and surveys the whole place. It feels formal, with leather couches circled around glass tables, decorated mats on top. The floor and the station are marbled with grainy tiles. It's all a far cry on the bars he'd attended all his life. Those are beat-down, messy places; but he could guess this place will look the same at night, when drunk people are littered about and getting high.

He gets distracted when he hears a commotion and looks back at the other side of the bar. He sees a dark - skinned man, barely holding up someone clearly way taller than him and sagging on the side. The man shouts angrily at the bartender with the shattered expensive glasses on the floor. The bartender keeps his head low, but attempts to say something which the man angrily disregarded. Luke considers intervening, but the man grumbles and leaves the bartender with a scowl, dragging the one he's holding up to the bar and throws him at the bar stool.

“Hey, Chipmunk! Give this fucker some water.” The man shouts angrily at Joe. The woman Joe's talking to excuses herself with a wink, Luke barely suppresses a snort at Joe's awestruck expression. 

Luke watches as Joe gets ahold of himself and pats the one slumped face-down at the station, drunk and out of it. Joe tries to talk him into drinking water, but he slurs out a “no, don’ need it” before vomiting all over himself. The dark-skinned man recoils in disgust, and began shouting at someone to clean up the mess. He looks at the drunk man with murder before meeting Luke's eye.

“What are you looking at?” He glares at Luke, challenge written all over his expression. Luke stiffens, the familiar rising of hackles coursing up his spine, poising for a fight, before he gets ahold of himself and fakes freezing instead. He smiles wryly, looking away. "Nothing, dude. No problems."

Joe chuckles, throwing towels to a colleague. "Now, don't be too intimidated. Luke, meet your soon-to-be-boss, Marcel. Marcel-" 

Marcel glares at Joe.

"-boss, this is Luke. He wants to work here."

" _Wants_ to." Marcel grumbles, looking at Luke up and down derisively. "You look like a shit charmer. Can you even handle a drink?"

Luke flashes his most convincing smile. "I can handle some."

"Not enough. I need someone who can handle _some_ and more." Marcel waves in dismissal. 

"I'll do my best?"

Marcel rolls his eyes. 

"Oh, come on. Being a heavy drinker's not a must in this job. Just know how to mix alcohol and make it look pretty and flashy. 'Sides, boss, we're low on staff." Joe butts in, leaning on the bar.

"Does he know how to mix alcohol?" Marcel gestures towards Luke.

"Nope." Joe answers. Marcel rolls his eyes again but Joe continues. "But he'll learn. I'll teach him."

"Fine, fine." Marcel grumbles. 

Luke clears his throat, figuring he should try to make small talks. "So… this place must be expensive to run, huh."

"I wouldn't know." Marcel has the corners of his lips pinched tight and orders Joe to bring him a tonic. "I only run the place and stress is all I fucking have, not money. Money's with this piece-o'shit," He nudges the tall guy slumped unconscious beside him irritably. "he's the owner. He barely has a care in this place, might just ran it to the ground with his alcohol habit."

Luke hums.

"I need a fucking raise." Marcel grumbles around his drink. 

"Raise?" The taller man whispers groggily, groaning as he fully sits up and smiles drunkenly to Marcel. "You want a raise Marcel?" He slurs. "Shoulda told me, woulda gave you a hundred - no thousand bucks. Give a - give a - fuck, I don't feel good." 

"Shut up, Nogla." Marcel grimaces and dunks his drink.

Joe chuckles and refills Marcel's glass again before Jon comes trudging back. 

"Heya." Jon says, voice smiling. "No wonder you're not upstairs. I thought I had to trash the place and find you under the bed or something."

"You think you're very funny aren't you." Marcel says drily. 

"Maybe just a bit." Jon says cheekily.

"Watch it." Marcel grumbles around his drink. "Don't forget that _I_ decide the fate of your recruit here."

"You'll hire him. We're low on staff, 'sides he's not asking much. Just a job. He's living with us so no need to figure out where to fit him upstairs."

"Good. No bother employees are an absolute asset of this piece of shit place." Marcel stands up, reluctantly helping Nogla at his feet, supporting him on his shoulder. "I better let this fucker sleep it off or I'll be tempted to put him to sleep for good. You," He points at Luke. "start this evening. You better be a good shit charmer by the start of business hours or I'll be relegating you to puke-cleaning in the bathroom."

"Yes, sir." Luke mock-salutes at Marcel as the other drags the owner away.

"Shouldn't I be celebrating right now?" Luke mumbles as Joe and Jon high-fives. "I should right?"

"No time." Joe shakes his head. "He's not joking with your deadline, man. And no joke, trust me when I say cleaning the bathrooms is a shit job."

"I don't really see the difference with cleaning the tables around here."

"Oh _trust me._ " Joe shakes his head again and shudders, cleaning away glasses. " _Loads different_. Anyway, come in over. I got lots of tricks to teach you."

Luke looks over at Jon when he pats his back. "He'll go easy on you, don't you worry."

Luke smiled at him, and pats him back in the shoulders. "Thank you, you two. Really, just - thank you for helping me."

Joe smiles at him toothily. "No problem, man. All in the name of brotherhood, am I right?"

_"All in the name of brotherhood." Brian angrily snapped his lighter over and over again, trying to light his cigarette. "Fucker can shove his brotherhood up his fucking ass."_

_Luke raised his eyebrows at him, watching Brian curse and throw his lighter down the ground, stomping at it uncontrollably. "No need to be impatient. Tomorrow morning, you can spit on his grave all you like."_

_"I'll spit on his fucking corpse." Bryan said, acerbic. "I'm the one killing the fool, ya shit. I'm gonna piss at him before I smother him in concrete."_

_Luke rolled his eyes. "And you're using my gun for that, ofcourse."_

_"I got you." Brian threw his unlighted cig behind him. "You know I won't let you rot in jail. You're my brother. And you won't go behind my back, would ya?"_

_"No." Luke mumbled, fiddling with his hands. He imitated holding a gun with it, pointing it behind Brian's head as the other kept walking towards the bike parked outside the warehouse. He cocked it and fired._

_"Never, ever, dude."_

"You're shit at this." Joe says.

Luke stares at the blue fountain between glasses, shimmering with sparkles and froth. "No I'm not."

"Yeah, you do." Joe grimaces. "That did not taste good."

Luke shrugs. "Looks pretty."

"Semi-pretty." Joe frowns at the froth threatening to overflow at the rim of the glasses, liquids splashing everywhere. "And messy. You will lose huge tips with this."

"Not that everyone would like me to serve them. More like lose a job?"

"Nah." Joe waves him off, wiping down the table. "You have a job, but you won't be behind the counter. Get ready for that toilet duty, you'll end up there by the end of the day by the look of things."

"Ah, well." Luke shrugs. "Not too bad for a first day."

Joe tsks. "No, no. We shan't be thinking bad thoughts. I'm a great teacher, dude. I'll get you in bartending in no time." Joe shot him a cocky look, tilting his head upwards with pride. 

Luke snickers to himself as he remembers that while he waits for the bucket to fill, ignoring the murkiness of of the water coming out the pipe. He snickers again, remembering the look of Joe's face when Marcel came back and practically shoves Luke to the cleaning closet. At least he has a job, though he has to get used to cleaning vomits and _other stuff_. It's nothing he can't handle, and nothing he's not encountered before. Besides, being part of the clean-up crew's not that bad, considering the boss told him he'll be promoted once he's got his shit together at mixing cocktails, so there's that.

He closes the pipe and sets the bucket down at his feet, he doses the black water with white powder and sets it bubbling then dips the scrub and continues scratching away questionable stains on the bathroom floor, letting the water dissolve flecks of powder he sees. He hums to himself, dipping the scrub back to the water and continues cleaning away.

_Life's looking up,_ Luke thinks to himself, eyeing the permanent black spots on the concrete floor. _for once._


End file.
